Page 19 of Shardless
A rumbling peal of laughter erupted from the older fey’s throat, and he clapped a hand on Skye’s shoulder. “Now then, come along, boy,” he said as he ushered Skye towards the door. “Go get ready for dinner. This is the first time our little family has been together for a very long time, and Sarina will want you looking presentable.”
With that, the door to the study closed behind him with a soft click. Skye smiled as he headed towards the stairs that would lead to his quarters on the fourth floor. It seemed Sarina wasn’t the only Castaro sibling playing games.
As he approached his bedroom door, he heard another voice calling out to him. “Skylen Emrys! Get in here!”
Skye grinned. It looked like he had already managed to piss Taly off. At least he hadn’t lost his touch.
“How may I be of service, Miss Caro?” he asked, walking into the spacious suite just across the hall.
Unlike his quarters, which had been outfitted in dark, masculine hues of green and brown, Taly’s personal apartment was all air and light. Draped in varying shades of blue and cream, it was likewalking inside a cloud. The last of the evening light was streaming through a nearby bay window, casting shadows across the various pieces of mortal tech that lay scattered across every available surface. For as long as he could remember, Taly had always been fascinated by anything that came from the mortal realm, and though Sarina had tried, the noblewoman had never been able to get the girl to stop tinkering with the random bits of junk she would sometimes find at the Swap. As a result, Skye had taken to calling her “Tinker,” and then eventually just “Tink.”
Taly was sitting at an ornately carved wooden vanity, and their former nanny and teacher stood behind the fuming girl, trying to tame her rebellious mop of hair with a brush and a pair of scissors. It seemed Sarina still hadn’t given up on trying to turn her into a proper lady.
“Sarina? Any idea what I’ve done now?” Skye gave the auburn-haired noblewoman a pleading look.
Sarina, smiling coyly, replied, “I believe you forgot to mention our visitors.”
“Oh.” Skye did his best to maintain a neutral expression. When it came to managing Taly’s ire, it was important never to show any signs of weakness.
Taly whipped around to glower at him. “Yes ‘oh.’ Aimee barged in here while I was bathing. She didn’t even knock.”
Of course, she did, Skye thought, suppressing a groan. Aimee Bryer, Ivain and Sarina’s great-grandniece, was the heir to a lesser barony on the fey mainland and had been visiting Harbor Manor every year since Skye had turned 20. Even thoughit seemed like it had been far, far longer since he’d first met the prissy noblewoman, this would only be the fifth time that Skye had been forced to endure her presence at the manor.
Studiously ignoring the places where Taly’s white shift had become slightly transparent underneath her damp hair, Skye muttered, “Well, Aimee always did like your room better than the guest quarters.”
Skye sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck when he heard Taly scoff. That was, perhaps, a bit of an understatement. Less than an hour after being introduced for the first time, Aimee had tried to have Taly evicted from her own room, arguing that a “mortal pet” shouldn’t have nicer quarters than a fey noblewoman. That, of course, hadn’t sat well with Skye. Or Sarina. Or Ivain—who had promptly shown Aimee back to the guest wing.
“Don’t worry,” Skye said smoothly, doing his best to mollify the irate girl. “Even if you hadn’t come to dinner, we wouldn’t have let her use the room. It’s still yours.”
“That’s not the point,” Taly replied, glancing at Skye over her shoulder. Her scowl deepened.
“Talya, if you don’t stop squirming, I’m going to cut an ear off. And it might not be accidental.” Sarina placed a firm hand on the top of Taly’s head and twisted her back around to face the mirror.
Taly stared at Skye’s reflection, her arms crossed. “Why didn’t you tell me that Aimee was coming to visit so much later this year? She and Aiden usually come at the end of Yule.”
“Because then you wouldn’t have come. Can you blame me for trying to increase my odds?” Taly’s eyes narrowed, but she remained silent. “And besides,” he said, trying to look contrite, “she and Aiden just arrived this afternoon. They’ll probably be too tired to come down for dinner. I doubt you’ll have to see her again.”
That seemed to somewhat abate her fury.Somewhatbeing the operative word. Taly was still scowling, but at least it was no longer at him. Deciding to keep his mouth shut while he was ahead, Skye wandered into the adjoining room, absentmindedly inspecting the random collection of disassembled mortal tech that lay scattered across the surface of an old worktable. Countless hours of his childhood had been spent within these walls. He knew almost everything about this collection of rooms.
For example, he knew that the board by the main door creaked, so it was important to be careful and step over it when sneaking around after everyone had gone to bed. And that crack in the doorframe—that hadmysteriouslyappeared after an unfortunate incident with an experimental catapult that Taly had fashioned out of gate tech. There was a matching crack in the door leading to his quarters just across the hall that hadmysteriouslyappeared around the same time.
“There! All finished,” Sarina proclaimed, stepping back to admire her handiwork.
Skye turned and couldn’t help but smile. He had always known that Sarina was a miracle worker, but she had outdone herself this time. She had somehow transformed Taly’s unruly tangle of hair into something far less chaotic. It was still quite messy by fey standards, but the wilder flyaways had been tamed and now curled gently, cascading out of a loose twist at the base of theyoung woman’s slender neck. A few rebellious strands had already managed to escape and framed her face.
“Now, where is that cosmetic glamour?” Sarina said mostly to herself, picking through a small jewelry box. Finding what she was looking for, she reached for Taly.
Taly stubbornly waved her hands away. “No. I don’t like glamours. They itch.”
Ignoring the girl’s feeble attempts to ward off her advance, Sarina firmly grabbed her chin and turned her head. Despite Taly’s squirming, she expertly clipped on a pair of small silver earrings set with blue water crystals. The glamour shimmered as it activated, and in the mirror, Skye could see that Taly’s cheeks were now just a little rosier and her lashes a little darker. “Lovely,” Sarina said, turning back to the vanity and reaching for a flowered jar. “Still, I think it’s missing something. Maybe just a little kohl around the eyes?”
This time, Taly jumped out of the chair and crossed the room. It seemed she was done being cooperative. “Nope. That’s where I draw the line.”
“But, Taly. You have such pretty eyes. Gray eyes are so rare, even among the fey.”
Skye chuckled as he made his way back into the main room and leaned against the doorframe. He had seen this battle play out time and time again. It always ended the same.
“Absolutely not,” Taly said heatedly. “You always poke meinthe eye. I’m lucky I still have both of them.”
